Liara T'Soni(WOTE)
Liara T'Soni, commonly referred to as Doctor T'Soni, as well as the Shadow Broker is an Asari scientist and archaeologist, as well as assuming the role of the Shadow Broker, head of the Shadow Broker Agency and one of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy. She is also the wife of Commander Vincent Shepard, and the mother of Iyra Aldonia. She was one of the central protagonist in the original Mass Effect trilogy, and a recurring character in Mass Effect: Chronicles of a Silent Galaxy. Born on Thessia, the daughter of well known Asari Matriarch, Benezia, Liara was an only child, and grew up not knowing who her father was. At an early age she became fascinated with protheans, and soon distanced herself from her mother's shadow. Ultimately she opted to take a career in archaeology and pursue her passion, the Protheans, spending much of her life in solitude. Eventually she arrived on the planet Therum, just as Saren Arterius was igniting his Geth uprising. Saren, already in league with Liara's mother, sent his forces to Knossos to retrieve Liara, in hopes to use her expertise to locate the Conduit. However, Saren's forces were stopped by the spectre, Commander Vincent Shepard. Liara then joined Shepard and his crew on their mission to stop Saren from bringing an ancient space-faring race of machines known as Reapers, that would eliminate all life in the galaxy. Throughout their journey, Liara and Shepard are forced in a fight with Benezia, who was indoctrinated by the Reapers, and ultimately was killed in the fight. Shepard and Liara soon fell for each other and began a romantic relationship. The crew, and Shepard soon succeeded in stopping Saren, and defeating him at the battle of the Citadel in late 2283 CE. Liara spent the next months alongside Shepard and his crew, hunting down Geth remnant in the outer fringes of Council Space, but one fateful attack changed everything. The SSV Normandy was attacked by Collectors, and the ensuing battle left many dead, Shepard included. Shepard's death left Liara broken. Months after his apparent death however, Liara, began working with Cerberus to recover Shepard's body from the Shadow Broker, after Cerberus illuded to the idea of restoring Shepard's life. Seeing that as the only way to bring her love back, Liara was willing to sacrifice anything, ultimately leaving her companion Feron behind to be captured by the Shadow Broker. After handing Shepard's body over to Cerberus, Liara began relocated to Illium, and while awaiting and hoping for the restoration of Shepard, she set her sights on taking down the Shadow Broker. The following two years went by, Liara building up her information, working through sources, and tracking down the Shadow Broker, and in 2285 CE, she was reunited with Shepard, though the circumstances, were not convenient. She had become cold, distant, and focused over the years, leading to a rift between her and Shepard. The two joined forces soon to find the Shadow Broker. Together they located the Broker on the hellish world of Hagalaz, where they discovered Feron was alive, detained by the Broker, and that the Broker was actually a Yahg. After defeating and killing the Broker, Liara made the decision to take the Broker's place, seeing all the information in front of her as a means to help Shepard and save the galaxy. Both her and Shepard reignited their romance there, before Shepard continued his mission to stop the Collectors. Liara remained on Hagalaz to aid Shepard from the Shadow Broker base. From her position, she began to look for ways to combat the coming threat of the Reapers. As the Reapers invaded, she would once again reunite with Shepard, this time rejoining the crew of the Normandy. Together the discovered the blueprints of a superweapon capable of destroying the Reapers, the Crucible, and Liara played a vital role in progressing the development of this weapon. Though through their journey, Liara discovered the truth about the Asari religion, witnessed the destruction of multiple worlds, including her homeworld of Thessia, and lost several close friends. However, she accomplished a life long dream of meeting a Prothean, Javik, though he left her with a less than disappointing view of the Prothean species. Liara continued fighting by Shepard's side, against Cerberus and the Reapers, even discovering the ancient species that created the Reapers, the Leviathans. In the end, Liara joined along side Shepard and a united galactic front, to stop the Reapers by activating the Crucible, at the Battle of Earth. Ultimately, a severely wounded Liara and Shepard managed to activate the weapon, destroying the Reapers, and everything encoded by them, the Mass Effect relays being severely damaged as well, marking the end of the cycles of extinction, and the end of the Reaper War. Both Shepard and Liara were recovered, alive, by galactic forces. Following the end of the Reaper War, Liara and Shepard eloped, and Liara continued serving as the Shadow Broker, using her abilities to help the galaxy rebuild. Over the next several years, she and Shepard had three children, Benezia T'Soni-Shepard, Dia T'Soni-Shepard, and Iyra T'Soni-Shepard. She also restored EDI, and secretly helped with the formation of the Galactic Federation of Allied Systems, as well as contributed towards the secular schism within the Asari Republics. As time went on, Liara began to dedicate more of her life to her family, leaving the duties of the Shadow Broker, in the hands of EDI for some time. However, Liara began to personally groom Iyra as her eventual replacement. In 2251 CE, Shepard passed away, leaving Liara devastated, reverting to the cold demeanor she had groomed when Shepard had first died in 2283 CE. She returned to her duties as the Shadow Broker, but Iyra, set out on her own, leaving her mother to handle the job of Broker alone. Biography Early Life The only child of Matriarch Benezia, Liara was raised by her mother alone. She knew little of who her father was, only that it was another asari for sometime. Being a Asari pureblood, she speculated that as the reason her "father" didn't want to be identified, as most Asari wanted to breed outside of their race. Growing up she was quite distant from Benezia, and often found herself living in her mother's shadow, burdened with the expectations her mother had indirectly set for Liara in life, just through her position and notoriety alone. From an early age Liara became fascinated with the Protheans, seeing them as wondrous, mysterious figures. Growing up, she did not relish her role as Benezia's daughter and has shied away from her mother's life as an important figure in galactic affairs. Liara chose a career in archaeology to indulge her interests and to escape the pressures of being the daughter of such a prominent figure. Because of her work, Liara spent most of her time in content solitude in various locations across the galaxy. Fate Changing Encounter on Therum Eventually, Liara's work took her to the volcanic world of Therum, and the fateful events that occurred there would ultimately prove to be life changing for the young Asari. In 2183 CE, Liara, was alerted by the arrival of Geth forces, and was forced into hiding, deploying a Prothean stasis barrier, saving her, but also trapping her. However, she would not be ensnared for long, as a squad arrived, led by the first human spectre, Commander Vincent Shepard. Liara, upon seeing the group, pleaded for them to free her, but was quickly questioned by the commander, in regards to her relationship with her mother, Benezia, whom was working with rogue spectre Saren Arterius. Liara was confused, as she hadn't spoken to her mother in sometime, and was able to convince Shepard and his team to free her. She then made her escape from the mining facility along with Shepard and his team, escaping on board Shepard's ship, the SSV Normandy. The Hunt for Saren Liara soon learned that Shepard and his team were hunting Saren after the former spectre attacked the human colony of Eden Prime, and Shepard also believed Saren was intending to bring back ancient sentient machines from dark space, known as Reapers, who wiped out the Protheans before, and that Saren was pursuing the Conduit. Liara herself had some knowledge of the device, only that it was somehow linked to the Prothean extinction. She had some notion that an ancient galactic cover up took place disguising the downfall of the Protheans. On her first debriefing aboard the Normandy, Liara shared her theory of cyclical extinction: the Protheans were just the latest in a long line of civilizations violently cast down after reaching their apex. Liara was surprised by Shepard's revelation of the Reapers' responsibility in the Protheans' doom, but believes it to be true, as there was remarkably little evidence of the Protheans' existence—as if something or someone did not want the mystery of their disappearance solved. Upon discovering that Shepard had interacted directly with a prothean beacon, she amazed and attempts to help Shepard piece together the vision, but to no avail. Liara then decided to stay on board the Normandy, and assist Shepard in his mission. Initially, Liara is viewed with suspicion by the rest of the crew, mostly due to her relation to Benezia. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams in particular was very hostile towards Liara, partially due to her concern over Shepard becoming close with Liara. In truth Liara was fascinated with Shepard, and the Commander began spending more time with her on board the ship. Even referring to the commander as an interesting subject to "study", to which the Commander coyly joked with her, much to Liara's embarrassment as she didn't at first understand, due to not being acquainted with social interactions. The crew eventually headed to the planet of Feros, where the Geth had been attacking human colonist. Liara joined Shepard and the ground in investigating the planet, quickly saving the colony of Zhu's Hope from a Geth attack. Liara, Shepard and the others continued fighting through the skyroads across the planet, finding survivors from the ExoGeni Corporation. After saving the scientist, they continued to the ExoGeni headquarters, encountering more Geth along the way. Inside the headquarters, the squad made a grave discovery, that the ExoGeni scientist had discovered an ancient sentient plant, much older than even the Protheans themselves, the Thorian|Thorian. The plant possessed mind controlling and telepathic abilities and had been testing them on the colonist of Zhu's Hope. Liara, believing the plant must have some information of use if Saren is after it, suggested they find it. The squad headed back to Zhu's Hope, now to discover that the colonist had been turned to slaves by the Thorian, however, Shepard and his squad managed to incapacitate the colonist, before entering the Thorian's lair. Once inside they discovered the massive grotesque plant, and that it was in control of an asari, Shiala. The Thorian, speaking through Shiala revealed that Saren had made a deal with it, sacrificing Shiala as apart of the deal so that he could receive information on the Protheans. Then Saren betrayed the Thorian and ordered his Geth to kill it. The Thorian then refused to make any deals with Shepard, and attempted to kill the Commander, Liara, and the others. After a short fight, they managed to kill the Thorian, and from its lifeless body emerged Shiala, conscious and in control of her own mind. Shiala revealed that the Thorian held knowledge of the Cipher, a tool that could help make sense of the beacon that gave Shepard visions of the Reapers, and lead his team to the conduit. After explaining its importance, Shiala transferred the Cipher directly to Shepard's mind. The experience left the Commander badly shaken, and back on the Normandy, Liara linked minds with Shepard, and helped make more sense of the beacon. Once back on the Normandy, Liara had another chance meeting with Shepard. This time, she was coming to terms with the feelings she had been developing for the Commander, and admitted them to him, to which he reciprocated. She then revealed to Shepard that she had never been intimate before, and the idea of it was somewhat daunting. It was a notion the Commander would not rush her over. Noveria was the next stop for Shepard's crew, and this meant confronting Benezia for Liara, and though the thought of this terrified her, she joined Shepard on the ground once more. The Great Loss A Chance for Revival Hunting the Shadow Broker Reunited with Shepard Lair of the Shadow Broker A New Shadow Broker Conflict with Cerberus The Reaper Invasion Post War Personality Friendships Relationship with Shepard Influence Appearances Trivia Related Pages *Commander Vincent Shepard (Husband) *Shadow Broker Agency *Iyra Aldonia (Daughter) *Benezia Shepard-T'Soni (Daughter) *Dia T'Soni (Daughter) *Urdnot Wrex *Galactic Federation of Allied Systems *EDI Category:WolfOfTheEast Category:Articles by WolfOfTheEast Category:Asari Category:Biotics Category:Shadow Broker Category:Chronicles of a Silent Galaxy Category:COSG Category:Scientist Category:Adept